This invention relates to side loading refuse trucks and, more particularly, to a side loading refuse truck which has a loading compartment at one end, usually immediately behind the truck cab, into which refuse is dumped from portable containers such as domestic trash cans, and which has mechanism for packing the refuse from the loading compartment into a main rear portion of the truck body.
Refuse trucks of this type may be generally divided into two classes. First, there is the type which comprises a reciprocating ram movable through the bottom of the loading compartment for packing refuse from the loading compartment into the rear storage portion of the body. When the body is fully loaded it is tilted upwardly to dump the refuse out of the body. Such trucks are shown, for examples, in U.S. Patents to Ochsner No. 2,076,504; to Balbi No. 2,487,411; to Huffines No. 2,750,055. In a second type of side loading refuse vehicle, the refuse is emptied into a loading compartment from the side and packed into the body of the vehicle by a ram movable through an opening defined beneath the lower end of a moveable upper partition wall. After the body is loaded with refuse, the packing ram is moved with movable partition to the rear of the vehicle, the two acting as a single ejector plate for discharging refuse from the body without the requirement that the body be tilted for emptying the refuse. Examples of this second type of vehicle are shown in U.S. Pats. to Brison Patents 3,252,600 and Churchman No. 3,802,585.
In both of these systems it is necessary not only to have power means such as hydraulic cylinders for actuating the packing ram which moves through the loading compartment but also, in the first system, to have mechanical means for tilting the body to dump refuse therefrom and, in the second system, to have either a separate, a second set of hydraulic cylinders or similar means for moving the main ejection plate, or to provide complex mechanisms for coupling the movement of the ejection plate and the ram as a unit through the body in order to eject refuse therefrom.
It is therefore the principal object of this invention to provide a side loading refuse truck having a loading compartment at its forward end and a ram which reciprocates across the bottom of the loading compartment to pack refuse loaded therein through an opening into a larger, rear storage body where it is accumulated and the ram also may be reciprocated through the larger storage body for the ejection of refuse therefrom after the body is filled.
It is yet another object of the instant invention to provide a side loading refuse truck having a simple low profile ram which functions both for packing refuse from a loading compartment into a storage body and for ejecting refuse from the storage body when the body is filled.
And yet another object of the instant invention is to provide a side loading refuse truck having a single, low profile ram which is reciprocated automatically through a loading compartment for packing refuse therefrom into a storage body at the rear of the truck and through the storage body itself for the ejection of refuse and which has associated with the ram a traveling articulated shield which closes off the space in front of the ram both during its packing cycle and during its ejection cycle in order to prevent refuse from falling downwardly into the bottom of either the loading compartment or the storage body in front of the ram.